Boss questions employee's work ethic when they work from home for one day despite working their previously agreed upon WFH days from the office: 'You want me to honor my in-office-days? Okay, but you'll be forced to honor my WFH-days'

It's pretty ironic that bosses who make workers come into the office under the guise of "team morale" are themselves the reason why morale is low in the first place. Through their unfair and unthought-out polices and general management approach, the reality is that morale probably isn't actually their aim, and when they say "morale," they mean "control," being their control over their staff.

Flexibility begets flexibility, and it's always wisest to consider all factors at play and the concessions someone else is making before criticizing them for one thing they did that you don't like…

This worker, who worked on two separate teams within the same work group, had a standing agreement with their main boss that they could work from home twice a week. But, when they started splitting time with a second team, a team whose manager was also subordinate to their main boss, they began working those days from the office so that they could spend more time with the second team. But, one week they had work scheduled on their house during the week that they needed to be present for, so since they weren't working from home on any other days anyway, they decided to work from home. It seems here that they got their main boss's approval, too.

Still, this triggered a passive-aggressive email from their second team's put-out manager questioning their work ethic. Disappointed and frustrated at this, the worker resolved to play the manager's game and work their office days strictly from the office, but in return, they were going to work all of their agreed-upon days from home.